The Tooth Tattoo(22)
‘I could endure that,’ Cat said.
‘If you like, you can repeat the programmes,’ Doug said. ‘Your audiences will be different each time, I expect.’
‘Presumably they pay for the privilege?’ Ivan said.
‘The sale of tickets and all profits are handled by the university. They intend to put it towards the sponsorship – which I may say is very generous.’
‘So we perform for nothing?’
‘It’s all part of the deal, Ivan, as I’ve tried to explain. Personally, I’d be thrilled to play in such surroundings if I had your talent.’
‘You think Ivan plays the fiddle well?’ Cat said. ‘His main instrument is the cash register. He’s a virtuoso.’ She turned to Mel. ‘Are you up for it, new boy?’
Mel was still in a spin from being admitted to the quartet. Right now, he would have agreed to anything.
Doug asked for a show of hands.
Nobody objected. Ivan seemed to have changed his mind about Bath.
‘I’ll confirm, then,’ Doug said. ‘That was a good sound, by the way. What’s the piece?’
‘That’s our manager talking,’ Cat said, ‘and he doesn’t know what we were playing.’
‘Schubert,’ Ivan said. ‘Quartet Number 14 in D minor, better known as “Death and the Maiden”.’
7
Ingeborg Smith said, ‘Something is up with him.’
The rest of the CID room must have heard, yet nobody else spoke. The central heating was set too high for a mild October afternoon. Lethargy was the prevailing mood.
‘He’s been out of sorts all week. Longer really.’ No one could be in any doubt who she meant. Ingeborg was the Diamond-watcher on the squad.
And on a day like today no one except Ingeborg cared much.
She tried a third time. ‘I don’t think he’s had a civil word for any of us.’
DI John Leaman finally responded with, ‘Tell us something new.’ Which was rich coming from the misery-guts of CID.
From across the room, Paul Gilbert, the youngest on the team, said, ‘It’s the trend, isn’t it? All those Scandinavian detectives, so depressed you wonder if they’ll hold out until the last chapter.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Leaman said.
‘Don’t you read?’
‘Read what?’
‘Some of them get on TV as well.’
‘I don’t have time for that stuff. I look at science-based series like CSI and Bones.’
‘Be fair, you guys,’ Ingeborg said. ‘The boss treats us right and he can be amusing when he’s on form. You have to tune in to his sense of humour, that’s all.’
‘My tuning must have gone to pot, then.’
‘Bosses come a lot worse than him.’
Gilbert was quick to take her up on this. ‘Why do you say that, Inge? Do you know something we don’t?’
‘I’m wondering if he knows something we don’t.’
Leaman swung round in his chair. ‘Hang about – do you think Diamond’s on the way out?’
This possibility galvanised everyone. Keith Halliwell, the most senior man present, said, ‘Get away. He’s said nothing to me.’
‘Whatever is bugging him, he’s internalising it,’ Ingeborg said. ‘With all the government cuts he could be looking at early retirement.’
‘Voluntary, you mean?’
‘He wouldn’t walk,’ Halliwell said. ‘Not the guv’nor.’
‘But he’d take it badly if they forced him out.’
Mental pictures of Diamond being dragged from the building.
‘There is another possibility,’ Gilbert said.
‘Give it to us, then.’
‘It could be some of us for the chop. He’s been told and he doesn’t want to break the news to us.’
Rumours of redundancies had been circulating for months and now something close to panic ensued.
‘They can’t do that,’ Leaman said. ‘We’re overstretched already.’
‘Overstretched when there’s a major enquiry,’ Halliwell said, ‘but that isn’t every week of the year. We could be vulnerable.’
‘All the public services are taking cuts,’ Gilbert said. ‘We can’t expect to escape.’
Leaman said, ‘And it’s always last in, first out. So don’t look so pleased with yourself, young man.’
By now every head was buzzing with thoughts of unemployment. Some twenty minutes later, Halliwell stood up. ‘I’m going to ask him.’
Diamond was at his desk with his chin propped on both hands like a medieval gargoyle, but chunkier. He’d discarded his jacket and loosened his tie. ‘What is it now?’